I’m no stranger to inbox insanity. My email always seems to be out of control and it often takes me 3-4 hours each day to get everything straightened out. Even worse, I end up missing most of my important messages because they get pushed down by all the junk. By the way, yes I am using Gmail’s Priority Inbox, and while it has helped somewhat, it’s no lifesaver.

Meet SaneBox, it’s much like Gmail’s Priority Inbox, but it adds quite a few other features as well and it works with almost all email clients. SaneBox works by separating the important email messages from the unimportant ones. Not only that, but it does much more like send you daily summaries of your new email messages, monitor your spam folder, send you reminders to follow up on email messages, and more.

So, let’s get started and see what SaneBox has to offer those with a messy inbox!

Getting Started

SaneBox is really easy to setup. First you’ll have to enter the email address that you want to use and it will detect which client you’re using. Once you give SaneBox permission to use your account, it will start separating your messages right away! That’s it, no plugins to install or anything else.

Supported Email Clients

SaneBox works with any email service that provides IMAP, WebDAV, or OWA such as: Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail, Mozilla Thunderbird, AOL, and more.

Where Are My Messages?

The messages that SaneBox thinks are important will remain in your inbox, everything else will be put into the @SaneLater folder (which is automatically created by the service). You’ll also get a daily summary of your unimportant email messages; you can customize the time of day to receive this summary in settings. If you want to receive a summary more than once a day, you can set this up in settings as well.

If you find that there are messages in your inbox that shouldn’t be or messages in SaneLater that shouldn’t be, you can move them to the correct place. SaneBox will learn from your actions and won’t make those mistakes again.

Also be sure to connect your social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter) in SaneBox’s settings to help improve accuracy.

One-Click Unsubscribe

With SaneBox, unsubscribing from annoying newsletters or annoying people is easy. Their @SaneBlackHole folder is used as a place for you to place emails messages that you wish to unsubscribe from. After that, any new messages that you receive from those senders will be sent directly to Trash.

The @SaneBlackHole folder is not enabled by default (neither are @SaneTomorrow or @SaneNextWeek, which we’ll talk about next). You’ll have to go to settings and click on “Show” to enable this folder.

Follow-up Reminders

The Sane RemindMe feature can send you reminders when emails that you specify are not responded back to within a specific time frame. You can either enable the @SaneTomorrow and/or @SaneNextWeek folders and put messages in there, or you can use the CC/BCC method.

With the CC/BCC method, when responding to an email message you can enter a time-frame@sanebox.com as an email address (in the CC or BCC field) in order to let SaneBox know when you want to be reminded to follow-up.

A few examples:

1week@sanebox.com

5minutes@sanebox.com

24hours@sanebox.com

2weeks@sanebox.com

April2@sanebox.com

If you use the CC/BCC method, SaneBox will create an @SaneRemindMe folder and all of those messages will be saved in there. You can also view all of your upcoming reminders in settings. That way you’ll know ahead of time what’s coming up!

Snooze Your Email

The Sane RemindMe feature can also be used to snooze any email message that you want to get out of the way, yet want to go back to at a later time to handle. Just move the message to @SaneTomorrow or @SaneNextWeek, or use the CC/BCC method. The message will then reappear at whatever time-frame you’ve chosen.

Spam Folder Monitoring

Have you ever had messages that accidentally wound up in your Spam folder and then you deleted them? That’s an honest mistake that can happen to the best of us and there’s no way to know that we’ve even missed it, unless the person who sent it asks us about it.

With @SaneNotSpam, you can enable this folder to monitor your spam folder. If any messages are found that shouldn’t be there, they’ll be put into the @SaneNotSpam folder. These messages will also be included in your daily summary.

This folder, along with a few others, can be enabled in settings under the “Folders you read” section.

Create Custom Folders

With SaneBox, you can even create your own custom folders and tell SaneBox what you want to go in them. This works much like email filters, except you don’t have to enter anything (except the folder name).

These folders are set up in SaneBox’s settings. You’ll have to train the folder by moving the desired email messages into those folders. It won’t take long for SaneBox to learn which message should go in there, since it’s so smart!

Pricing

SaneBox is usually .95/month, but from now until 4/1/12 you can get SaneBox free for 4 months! To get this deal, you’ll have to sign up through StackSocial, which is a deal site for apps, gadgets, and all things tech. Just click on “Free” (as seen below), sign up with StackSocial and then you’ll be all set.

What will happen is that you’ll get SaneBox free for 1-month and then you’ll have a .85 credit toward the service, which is equal to 3 months. So that’s 4 total months free! After your 4 months is up, you can cancel or renew the service.

Also note that you will not have to enter your credit card information at any time – until you’re ready to renew! So it’s a win/win deal.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, SaneBox is really a must-have tool for anyone who is fed up with their unorganized inbox. Plus it adds additional features to help boost productivity. Plus, you just can’t beat the 4-month trial period that you’ll have to test it out and see if you like it.

It may take some time to setup, but once you’re done you’ll have a nice clean inbox and you’ll never miss another message or forget to follow up again!

Do you hate looking at your inbox? Is checking your email becoming more of a chore that never seems to be completed? Well, it’s a new year, so why not start by taking control of your email inbox once and for all?

If your inbox is out of control and you don’t know where to start, or if you just want to start the new year off productively, here are 3 free tools that can help.

If your your inbox is totally out of control and can’t keep your priorities straight, you really need ActiveInbox. This plugin for Chrome and Firefox works with both Gmail and Google Apps accounts. It lets you turn emails into tasks, snooze messages to read later, and helps you focus on top priorities. Emails can also be organized into project folders and you can even add notes, which will only be visible to you.

The “Previous Conversation Viewer” is also nice because it helps you keep up with all correspondences from a single recipient. ActiveInbox adds a whole new section to your sidebar for better organization of your tasks and messages.

Taskforce is a lot like ActiveInbox in that it lets you convert emails into tasks, but it stops there. Taskforce displays a small collapsible task window at the top of your inbox, so that you can keep up with what needs to be done and what is currently being worked on. You can delay tasks and collaborate with other people right within the task window, but only if the other person is using Taskforce as well.

If that person does not have Taskforce installed, you can still collaborate with them, but it will be done via email. The Taskforce plugin is available for Chrome, Firefox, and Safari; it works with Gmail and Google Apps accounts.

I’m a long time user of OtherInbox (for 2 of my email accounts) and love how it automatically organizes your messages into labels. It currently works with Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and AOL mail. Basically, OtherInbox automatically analyzes your incoming mail and then sorts them by priority. The low priority messages are archived and organized into automatically created labels; however, you can create your own labels and it will automatically adapt.

You’ll get a daily email digest showing you a summary of all your organized messages. A great addition is the ability to unsubscribe from newsletters just by placing messages in the “OIB/Unsubscribe” folder. OtherInbox will take care of the rest by working with the sender to make sure you’re removed from the mailing list or newsletter.

If you’d rather organize your inbox on your own, there’s always Gmail filters, which have to be setup manually.

As I’ve mentioned before, my Gmail account is horrific. It seems like something so simple as keeping it organized has become a huge chore. In an attempt to redeem myself, I signed up to receive an invite to Taskforce. So far, I have been using the service for about a week and it has really come in handy. So now I’m sure you’re wondering, what is Taskforce?

Taskforce is installed via a browser extension (Chrome, Firefox or Safari) and can be used with Google Mail or Google Apps for your domain. It splits your emails into three logical components: Action, Information and Broadcast. Any email message can be converted into a task and you can even set a 2-day reminder for it.

A nice feature that Taskforce adds is the ability to collaborate with friends and coworkers. This is because tasks can be shared and you can also add comments to them. This is great for eliminating even more email because you shouldn’t need to do CC’s or BCC’s as often — and no more replying back and forth via email, just use Taskforce comments for that.

Action (New)

I’m still not 100% sure of how this area works. Tasks just seemed to appear here magically. I did notice that you can add items in this section to your current tasks just by clicking on it. You can also invite users and add comments to these items.

Information (Current)

Here you can see current tasks. This is just a speculation but I think that all new tasks are added here, and if you set a reminder for the task, it then gets moved to “new” in 2 days so that you know it’s important. Items here can be rearranged by just dragging and dropping. Checking off an item will remove it from the list. Clicking on a task will let you see more info, invite other users, add comments, open the related email, edit and archive the task.

Broadcast (Activity)

The activity feed adds your own personal social timeline to your inbox. All broadcast emails (notifications, updates, messages) from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and more will be placed here and archived in your inbox. Emails in which you’re CC’d can also be placed here if you choose. This helps to clear up your inbox of all those (sometimes annoying) social networking notifications.

You will have to set this up by creating a Gmail filter and then forwarding your messages to an email specified by Taskforce. They will give you step-by-step directions for this once you get your invite.

Taskforce also has mobile access. You can use their mobile site to view, add and manage your tasks as well as add comments. Plus you’ll also be able to view your activity feed.

I find Taskforce a lot easier to use than other tools out there for organizing your inbox. I like how it removes all the annoying social networking notifications and turns them into a mini-timeline right in your inbox.

I don’t like how the items are handled once clicked though. When you click on an item in the activity stream, it takes you to the email message and then you have to click to open it. I kind of wish that it could open it up within the widget. Besides that, I’m finding Taskforce very useful and definitely think it’s a keeper.